Rusted Steel
by Perfect Carnage
Summary: Drabble: A look at how the world of Knightmare fell apart


The Kryptonite spear, he has it in his hands. He is strong, the alien is weak, he's about to do what needs to be done. For the greater good, for humanity. He positions the spear over the alien's heart.

"You're no god. You're not even a man."

The alien is trying to say something, he shoves down on its throat with his boot. He doesn't need to hear it plea for mercy. He's not cruel.

He strikes.

"No!"

Lois gets in the way, falls down over the alien to protect it, is stabbed in the back. He lets go of the spear, horrified, steps back. Keeps backing away until he hits a column. The alien – Superman- is struggling to push itself up, is cradling Lois' body and moaning words he can't make out. But he can recognise the grief. He's numb. He feels like vomiting, the hot bile is forcing its way up his throat and he has to bite it back. He's just killed a woman, an innocent woman. Batman doesn't kill, not even the worst of them. No matter how bad the criminal, how insane, he never crossed the line.

And now he broke his one rule with an idealistic reporter from the Daily Planet.

She sacrificed herself to protect the alien. Why?

He can't think straight, can't be _here_. So he fires a grappling hook at the broken roof and flees, leaving behind the body, the alien and the weapon.

* * *

Dawn came. Superman was mad, the whole world knows it. Every property belonging to Bruce Wayne is now a burning crater. He'd be dead if he'd been in any of them. Other people died, good people, and he feels a pang of regret at not being able to finish what he started the night before. He still remembers Lois, but her death wasn't worth all this - his worst fear come true.

There's no questioning it any more. He's in a war.

* * *

The powers that be condemned Superman's actions and asked him to cease his manhunt, along with his new heavy handed approach to dealing with crime. They told him to appear in court to face charges of destruction of property and manslaughter.

He said no.

Bruce can only watch helplessly as Superman states his plan to create a new world order, one which stands for absolute justice. No more crime, no more corruption, no more division. No more freedom, Bruce thinks with dread.

He's not afraid of dying, hasn't been for a long while. He's afraid for all those who will have to adjust or die to Superman's world.

* * *

They tried to stop him of course. Traditional weapons were useless and no one wanted to use nukes against populated cities, even to kill an alien menace. He didn't have any Kryptonite left, and if Luthor did he wasn't saying. No one had seen Lex Luthor in months, but there was no reason to believe he was dead. He could have just gone to ground, he had the resources for it.

The weapon they did end up using was a monster codenamed Doomsday. It was from the Kryptonian ship, and had all of Superman's powers. Their fight levelled what was left of Metropolis. Doomsday would have won, but Superman had help. He didn't know why but Diana had chosen to side with him, and helped slay the beast. Apparently the Kryptonite spear hadn't been destroyed that night.

Doomsday may have failed, but it did give Bruce an idea.

* * *

He couldn't get to them all in time. Barry and Victor he found before they could attack Superman on their own, or join him. The alien was doing recruiting of his own, it was how he'd ran into Arthur. To Bruce's total lack of surprise he'd told the alien to shove it and tried to walk away. Evidently Superman didn't give warnings any more. Their fight – more of a scuffle really – was brief but exceedingly violent, and ended with Arthur flown into orbit and left there. As a finishing blow or insult his body was slammed back to Earth, in the Sahara desert.

It was then that Bruce realised that winning might not be possible. It's also then that he started trying to reach Luthor or find additional Kryptonite deposits in earnest.

* * *

Luthor revealed himself in the worst possible way. He was a pawn for some alien intelligence, had been since before the Regime had started. Whatever it was it tried to negotiate with Superman for control of the planet. He refused, and another war started.

It was good, it gave Bruce cover to try and retrieve the last supply of Kryptonite himself. It was going to Superman's fortress, either to be destroyed or hoarded for some unknown purpose. He wouldn't have put it past the stormtroopers to have hijacked the transport chain from a different group aiming to use it to create a weapon.

It didn't matter, he needed a way to kill Superman and fix his mistake. Barry was working on preventing this sorry future from ever existing, but he needed to at least try while he still had a present.

He'd come close to killing the god before, this time he wouldn't stop. He'd dropped his code a while ago, nothing would prevent him from ending the Kryptonian's life. Then reclaiming Earth for humanity would be easier. Darkseid sent troops but never appeared himself, cut off the motherboxes and Earth would be safe. Any Apokolips forces left on Earth could be destroyed in isolation.

At least, that had been the plan.

* * *

 _Written after a very late night viewing of BvS, which was great right until the M-word._


End file.
